disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their mind day and night always delights in meditation.—Dhammapada
THE FIRST COUNCIL
The funeral ceremonies began, but the monks in attendance agreed to wait for Mahakasyapa to return from his travels before they performed the cremation. Meanwhile, Mahakasyapa met a group of monks in the village of Pava who informed him that Buddha had died. One of them remarked, “Don’t be unhappy. We are finally free to do as we wish without being reprimanded and corrected all the time!” Concerned about the rebellious sentiment, Mahakasyapa hurried back to the funeral site to complete the rites.
Following Buddha’s death, many members of the Order dispersed. There was nothing to keep them together. Mahakasyapa recognized that something had to be done to formally set out the rules and teachings of Buddha to keep the Order gathered. Three months after Buddha’s death, Mahakasyapa called together the five hundred who remained. They gathered at a place near Rajagriha into what has come to be called the First Buddhist Council.
All who gathered had reached enlightenment except Ananda. Ananda had been continually at Buddha’s side for the past twenty-five years and knew all of Buddha’s sermons by heart. Therefore, the monks agreed that Ananda should be included at the council.
Ananda desperately wanted to become enlightened. According to legend, the night before the council convened he stayed up all night trying to reach enlightenment. Unsuccessful, he finally decided to give up and go to bed. When he lay down on his bed, so the legend goes, his head mysteriously lifted off the pillow and his feet raised from the bed. He became enlightened.
The five hundred monks spent the three months of the rainy season gathering Buddha’s teachings, preserving them in three sections: the words of the Buddha, called the Doctrines of the Elders (Thera Vada), the rules of the Order (Vinaya), and the general precepts for both the monks and the laity (Dharma). Ananda recited the sermons as he remembered them, beginning each one with the words: “Thus have I heard,” which is how the earliest sermons, later known as sutras, begin.
The entire council recited all the information together to commit it to memory. According to the custom of the time, nothing was written down. Our respect for the written word was not shared by early civilizations. Originally, people believed that sacred words would be trivialized, their deeper intent lost, if they were written down. Important information was best preserved when learned by heart. As a result of this belief, for several centuries Buddha’s lectures were perpetuated solely in the memory of the monks.
The monks continued to walk the Eightfold Path that Buddha had shown. Through meditation that helped them recognize impermanence and give up desires, they sought to find enlightenment. They became known as arhats, followers of the saintly, noble way, and they lived in seclusion so as to foster and develop their enlightenment. Through deep meditation on the Eightfold Path, they escaped the problems of sickness, death, and suffering. The reputation of arhats as absolutely pure beings grew.
BUDDHISM DIVIDES INTO SECTS
For the next hundred years, differences that had always been present, even during Buddha’s lifetime, became more pronounced. Some followers felt that the traditional rules and practices set out by the First Council were too strict. A second council of seven hundred monks was called at Vaisali to resolve the divisions and set down the rules and teachings as they had developed. One contingent of more liberal monks requested what was called the “Ten Indulgences,” asking for the loosening of the rules and restrictions on alcohol, money, and behavior.
In the end, the council upheld the conservative version of the rules without change. Dissatisfied with the council’s decision, members of the liberal faction, under their leader Mahadeva, held their own meeting, which they called Maha Sangiti (the Great Council). This was the origin of a new sect of Buddhism, the Mahasanghikas, which paved the way for Mahayana.
After the Second Council, the monks continued to wander around the countryside in groups, teaching the doctrine from memory. Each member tended to specialize, becoming expert in one sutra. Inevitably, variations began to occur. People and groups not only lived in different parts of the country, but also learned different doctrines. At first, the groups got along amicably, recognizing that they were simply traveling different paths to the same goal. But gradually, distinctions became disputes that grew more frequent and intense. At least eighteen separate sects formed.
Since all the orders depended on the general population for support, the liberal Mahasanghikas wanted to relax the strict rules about who could be enlightened so that everyday people could be included. Mahadeva argued, “Why not put your faith in the Buddha who achieved perfect enlightenment and remains forever in Nirvana?”
The conservative sect adversarial to the Mahasanghikas called themselves Sthaviras, meaning Elders. In Sanskrit, this name translates as Theravadins, one of the Buddhist groups that continues today in Southeast Asia. Theravadins claimed that they had seniority and were the keepers of Buddha’s original orthodoxy. They tried to stay with the early traditions without changing them. To let go of passions, discover wisdom in meditation, and then become an arhat continued to be the highest goal for these followers.
The sects disputed other issues, but the major division was between the Elders and those who preferred a more liberal doctrine.
ASOKA, THE BUDDHIST KING
Asoka (ruled 274-236 B.C.) began his career as a military leader. After conquering Magadha, Asoka was crowned king, and each of his six brothers was given his own city to rule. Asoka, however, did not get along with his brothers and attacked their kingdoms repeatedly. Eventually, he was victorious, brutally killing all six. He continued his murderous rampage until the entire territory was his.
Many legends tell of Asoka’s cruelty. He believed that the more people he killed, the stronger his kingdom would become. He built a sacrificial house where executions were performed and decreed that anyone who entered the house was to be killed. He was said to have slaughtered thousands of innocent people (Chattopadhyaya 1981, 54).
One day a young Buddhist seeker named Samudra, who had not yet found enlightenment, wandered into the sacrificial house by mistake. Raising his sword, the executioner approached the monk. Samudra asked innocently, “Why are you attacking me?”
The executioner explained, “Now that you have entered this house, I am obliged to kill you.”
Samudra said, “I will accept that, but leave me here for seven days. I will not move from this spot.” The executioner agreed and left. The monk sat down amid all the blood and began to meditate. He could see the remains of the many lives that had been cut short. Suddenly, as he realized the impermanence of all things, he was enlightened.
On the seventh day, the executioner returned to kill Samudra. Thinking of a new way to accomplish this chore, the executioner placed Samudra in a cauldron of burning oil for a whole day, but Samudra was now impervious to harm. Hearing about this strange event, the king strode into the house to see for himself. The executioner looked visibly upset. “Sire! You have entered the house, and now by your own order, I must kill you!”
But Asoka cleverly countered, “Ah, but you entered first, so I must first kill you.”
The monk interrupted their arguing. “I have miraculously been able to endure this burning oil because of my meditation!” In a persuasive speech about the benefits of Buddhism, he urged the king to repent of his sins. Deeply moved, the king underwent a complete conversion. He destroyed his slaughterhouse and put all his efforts into learning and practicing Buddhism.
King
